The physical and emotional toll of treating COVID-19 patients is driving many nurses to leave the profession, and it’s raising alarms about the state’s capacity to educate their replacements. To learn more about why nursing programs are so impacted, and how to fix them, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke …
Read More »Grief Support Services Are Helping The Community Find Healing During The Pandemic
For 40 years, Hinds Hospice has been working to comfort terminally ill patients and help their loved ones say goodbye. But their counseling services are available to anyone in the community in need of grief support, services that are proving to be particularly vital as we move through the pandemic. …
Read More »Fresno Art Museum’s Executive Director On Weathering The Pandemic And Reopening To The Public
Last week, the Fresno Art Museum reopened its doors to the general public. It was a long awaited moment for the institution and art lovers in Fresno. To learn how it went and what new exhibits are on the horizon, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with the museum’s executive …
Read More »Emergency Funds Help Small Farms Grapple With Drought and Pandemic
Small farmers in the Central Valley operate on thin margins even in good years, and now they are also grappling with drought, wildfire and the recovery from market disruptions that were caused by the pandemic. To get a better sense of how family farms are weathering these challenges, Valley Edition …
Read More »Processing The Pandemic: Tower Food King Owner Wonders What Happened To Some Of His Regulars
Mohamed Ahmed has worked behind the register of the Food King in Fresno’s Tower District for more than a decade. He’s the owner, and he says many of his customers are regulars coming in every week for basic staples or beer. He expects to see them, but the pandemic changed …
Read More »Processing The Pandemic: A Drag Queen’s Break From Entertaining Was A Mental Health Wake-Up Call
Paul Hernandez designs and sews his own costumes and entertains audiences through the art of drag with his alter ego Leilani Price. He also does his own makeup before performing at LGBTQ night clubs like Fab in Fresno’s Tower District. But the pandemic ended those performances for over a year …
Read More »LGBTQ+ Leaders In The Valley Discuss Pride Month And The Impact Of The Pandemic
As communities in the San Joaquin Valley grapple over the recognition of Pride Month, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock got reactions from local leaders in the LGBTQ+ community. She spoke with Estevan Parra, coordinator of LGBTQ+ and gender programs and services at Fresno State, Kathleen Arambula-Reyna, festival director and board …
Read More »Processing The Pandemic: A Teacher Worries About Her Students And Finds Ways To Connect
For our series looking at how people are processing their experiences around the pandemic, we hear from Rodia Montgomery-Gentry. She’s a social science teacher and department chair at Madera South High School. As schools start to reopen, Montgomery-Gentry reflects on the challenges of connecting to students through online learning. FM89’s …
Read More »Equity And The Pandemic Response – COVID-19 Update For June 4, 2021
Last August, the state of California introduced a “health equity metric” in its method of evaluating progress in fighting COVID-19. Ostensibly, that meant the state would be grading counties not just on their countywide case rates, positivity rates, testing and (later) vaccine numbers, but also on all of those measures …
Read More »Processing The Pandemic: Jakara Movement Director On Health Inequities, Poor Working Conditions
Naindeep Singh, the executive director of the Jakara movement, a volunteer training organization and a hub for Sikh Californian youth, has joined us as part of our series looking at how people are processing the magnitude of this pandemic. He spoke with FM89’s Alice Daniel for this audio postcard. https://www.kvpr.org/sites/kvpr/files/styles/big_story/public/202105/deep_singh.png
Read More »Processing The Pandemic: A Strong Faith Helped This Community Rights Activist Cope
On this week’s Valley Edition , we continue our series looking at how people are processing the magnitude of this pandemic. Today we hear from 79-year-old Dezie Woods-Jones. She’s the state president of Black Women Organized for Political Action and a former vice mayor of Oakland. Woods-Jones lives in Madera …
Read More »Pandemic Leaves Hospitals On Shaky Financial Footing – COVID-19 Update For May 7
For many of us, hospitals are pillars of communities, representing safety nets that we hope will always be there. But there’s no guarantee they will be. A new report estimates that California’s hospitals have suffered billions of dollars in losses in the last year, and that they could lose billions …
Read More »Processing The Pandemic: Fresno’s New Poet Laureate On The Role Of Creativity In Healing
The Fresno Arts Council recently announced the city’s fifth poet laureate, Megan Anderson Bohigian. In her new role, Anderson Bohigian says she hopes to facilitate healing around the pandemic with a community involved poetry writing project. FM89’s News Director Alice Daniel reached out to her to participate in our own …
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